Richard Arnold Dümmer (1887 in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

– 2 December 1922, in

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

) was a South African botanist who collected in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

and Uganda. Dümmer worked in the Cape Town municipal gardens before joining

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...

as a gardener in 1910. In 1911 he became assistant to Prof.

Augustine Henry Augustine Henry (2 July 1857 – 23 March 1930) was a British-born Irish plantsman and sinologist. He is best known for sending over 15,000 dry specimens and seeds and 500 plant samples to Kew Gardens in the United Kingdom. By 1930, he was a rec ...

and had a hand in preparing

Elwes Elwes () is an English surname whose spelling over the years has included Helwish, Helewise, Helwys, Elwaiss, Elwaies and Elway. It may refer to: * Columba Cary-Elwes (1903–1994), English Benedictine monk * Elwes baronets, 1660–1787 * Eva Elwes ...

and Henry's ''"The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland"'' for publication. Dümmer worked in the herbaria and libraries of Kew, the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, the

Linnaean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

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and Edinburgh Universities. He published taxonomic notes on '' Agathosma'', '' Eugenia'',

Bruniaceae Bruniaceae is a family of shrubs native to the cape region of South Africa. They are mostly restricted to the Cape Province, but a small number of species occur in KwaZulu-Natal. Description Species belonging to the Bruniaceae are heath-like s ...

, '' Alepidea'', ''

Lotononis ''Lotononis'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae and the tribe Crotalarieae. Almost all of the species in the genus occur in southern Africa. Species Several species were recently transferred from ''Lotononis'' to four new or ...

'', '' Pleiospora'', Combretaceae, ''

Adenandra ''Adenandra'' is a genus of evergreen shrubs of the family Rutaceae, commonly known as buchu (plural buchus). The genus is native to South Africa. The plants are related to the citrus family, and have oil glands in the leaves which give off a dis ...

'' and '' Acmadenia''. He was employed by the ''Kivuvu Rubber Company'' of

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...

in 1914, using the opportunity to collect flowering plants and fungi. He also arranged botanical expeditions to

Mount Elgon Mount Elgon is an extinct shield volcano on the border of Uganda and Kenya, north of Kisumu and west of Kitale. The mountain's highest point, named "Wagagai", is located entirely within Uganda.

and Mount Longonot crater. Dümmer then spent a year back in Cape Town identifying and processing his collections. His life and career were cut short by a motor-cycle accident on the Jinji road in Kampala. He is commemorated by the ''Kew Guild's'' annual award of "The Dümmer Memorial Prize" to the student submitting the best collection of British plants. His specimens number over 20 000 and are housed at PRE, SAM, NH, BM, E, K, MO, P and US.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dummer, Richard Arnold 1887 births 1922 deaths Employees of the British Museum Scientists from Cape Town 20th-century South African botanists South African expatriates in Uganda